Hush
by Katsuko1978
Summary: He could still remember what it was like to fly. AU, no longer a one-shot.
1. Hush

**Disclaimer:** TF © Hasbro  
**Warnings:** AU and minor angst  
**Notes:** This came about from a visit to the bunny farm over on LJ (the link should be somewhere in my profile, I think...). It kept _staring_ at me, and I'm weak, so this was the result. Bunny originally by kirin_saga; seeker-cant elements are Sanjuno's; the lullaby lyrics are mine.

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He could still remember what it was like to fly, even though he hadn't had wings of his own for so many vorns now.

Back then he had been Cloudjumper, his creators' only winglet and their greatest source of joy. He had known even from a very young age that something kept him from having co-creations; it was only when he was a bit older that he learned that only one of the three had been capable of carrying a newspark to term, and that an accident while on the job had led to the reabsorption of what would have been a femme sibling and prevented his bearer from conceiving again.

It hadn't mattered much, not to any of them. Cloudjumper was the pride of all three of his creators, and they showered him with affection. Even now, he could hear his bearer crooning lullabies in seeker-cant whenever he drifted into recharge:

_Hush, little winglet, please don't you cry. Someday soon you, too, shall fly._

Life should have been simple, easy; Vos had been flourishing and the troubles of the rest of Cybertron had been almost akin to the stories creators told about the Quintessons coming to take away naughty sparklings who would not listen to their elders. His creators, however, did have their concerns regarding how quickly the dissenters were gathering, and the day that Kaon fell had the family unit making a quick decision that would change all of their lives.

Cloudjumper had been barely out of his youngling stage and should by rights have been on his way to one of the academies when true war had broken out and mechs began scrambling to choose sides. The seekers were quickly rallying around the dissenters and their leader, a one-time gladiator by the name of Megatron; Cloudjumper and his family did not trust the mech and chose to side with the Autobot regime. Yet before they could flee the city, a small battalion of the rebels confronted the family unit and demanded that they come along quietly. In the ensuing melee, Cloudjumper was gravely injured and two of his creators were seriously damaged as well before they were able to escape.

He didn't remember the flight from Vos to Iacon, nor could he recall much of the conversation that had ensued with the medic on duty. When he was fully aware again, the young mech realized his wings were gone and his frame felt horribly _wrong_. His creators were huddled around him, expressions of concern and love and resolve on their faceplates as they stroked his limbs and hummed reassurances. Apparently the Autobots didn't have the materials needed to repair a seeker frame as horrifically damaged as his had been, and with his spark in danger of extinguishing his creators had been forced to choose between losing their only winglet or having him placed in the first available frame.

What made it worse was the fact that his creators wouldn't be remaining in the camp. With so many seekers joining the rebel faction, the trine had been tapped as infiltrators and assigned to "join" the Decepticons, working from within to aid their fellow Autobots. The only mechs aware of the double agents were their handler Jazz, the Prime, the medic who had allowed them the opportunity to bid their creation farewell before being forced to leave, and Cloudjumper himself.

Only he wasn't Cloudjumper anymore; the designation no longer suited him. He kept it stored in his memory files, waiting for the day that he would be given back his wings and his creators didn't have to keep living a lie. Until that time, he went by the designation that his three creators had whispered to him before they left: _"Until we share the skies again, our Cloudjumper will have to be Cliffjumper instead."_

Cliffjumper hated having to wait for so very long, especially now that the war had been dragged to a completely new world and still showed no signs of ending anytime soon. The only things that kept him truly sane were slipping away from the _Ark_ to at least see the sky when the need for flight became too much, recording the seekers flying above during battles, and listening to his creators over the bond the four of them still shared. And when he sometimes had difficulty falling into recharge, he allowed himself the memory of Starscream quietly humming in seeker-cant to lull him to slumber:

_Hush, little winglet, please don't you weep. In Primus' hands your wings he'll keep._

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**Final Notes:** Anyone who guessed that TC and Warp were also involved, give yourself a cookie. And the creators who were injured were TC (who made a full recovery) and Screamer (whose vocalizer was damaged beyond repair, leaving him sounding the way he does).


	2. Rivalry Part 1

**Notes:** Remember me saying this was a one-shot? Guess what?

I'm blaming Kirin for this part as well - after all, she was the one to post another Cliffjumper bunny, claiming inspiration from reading this and "Bonds." I took the hint and decided to see where the bunny would lead. There's more to come, especially considering what's cooking in my head!

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It seemed like it was always the same story, cycle after cycle, vorn upon vorn.

The double agents they had seated early in the war would send a coded message to Jazz, informing them of when and where Megatron was planning a strike. A team – which inevitably would include three specific frontliners – would be assembled to go deal with the situation. One twin or the other would realize that the seekers were present and decide to bring them down. Megatron would eventually call a retreat and one of Jazz's insiders would contact him to confirm that the objective had been complete and that none of them had come to any serious harm (mostly for Ratchet's sake, as the mech fumed whenever he knew that those particular 'bots were damaged and he couldn't do anything about it).

And once everyone had been repaired and retreated to the rec room for a refuel, Cliffjumper would get into it with Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, or both at the same time, which always ended with the participants visiting the med bay and the brig, not necessarily in that order.

Optimus heaved a heavy sigh and rubbed at his optics. The main problem wasn't that the twins were abrasive – it certainly didn't _help_ matters any – but that the 'minibot' loathed them for no reason that was apparent to a vast majority of the _Ark's_ residents. However, there were at least three mechs who could sum up Cliffjumper's hatred of the twins in two words: Jet Judo.

Optimus had always known about the red mech's true origins, as did Ratchet and Jazz; the Prime didn't think he would ever forget that long-ago day when his head of special operations rushed into the med bay accompanied by one functional refugee seeker, said seeker's severely-damaged mates, and their nearly-offline creation. He could only figure that Skywarp evaded damage by utilizing his teleportation drive to get behind their attackers and take them down while the other three did the best they could to keep attention away from the dark seeker. Thundercracker had been fully functional again in a matter of joors, but there was nothing that Ratchet could do to repair Starscream's vocalizer.

The worst by far had been the damages to the youngest of the four, only a proto-adult. Ratchet did what he could, but the young seeker's spark had been in danger of extinguishing if something wasn't done quickly. The trine had apparently discussed the situation (even with the memories granted by the Matrix, Optimus could tell when seeker-cant being used but had no idea what was being 'said') and agreed to allow Jumper's spark to be placed in an available minibot frame.

It had been almost cruel to separate the four after that, but the fact of the matter had been that they needed someone on the inside; no one had expected the trine to reach the upper echelons of the Decepticon hierarchy, but it had proven invaluable to the Autobots in planning their counterattacks. Cliffjumper – Jazz was under the impression that it was _close_ to the ex-seeker's true designation but off just enough to keep anyone from making a connection between him and the trine – had adjusted decently to being physically separate from his creators and the inability to take flight, although he did sometimes vanish for several hours with no explanation for his whereabouts upon returning. Ratchet's working theory was that just being able to see the sky helped to keep the phenomenon known as 'sky hunger' at bay, although he'd confided in Optimus that he suspected at least one of his creators was taking him up whenever possible; unless Cliffjumper started talking about where he went, there was no way to either prove or disprove the medic's theory.

But what was obvious beyond a shadow of a doubt to the three mechs in the know was that Cliffjumper had most definitely inherited his bearer's quick temper, and the most frequent recipients of his ire were the resident twins. Even with a few hundred feet between him and the med bay, Optimus could already hear Ratchet gearing up for yet another lecture that was doomed to failure.

"Prime, got a minute?"

Optimus turned slightly, not truly looking forward to hearing the same argument for the millionth time since arriving on Earth, and gave a nod to Jazz. The frown on the smaller mech's faceplate was troublesome, and he decided that Ratchet had the situation as in-control as possible where a temperamental mostly-grown seeker-in-disguise was concerned.

"Of course. What seems to be the problem, Jazz?"

The head of ops glanced around briefly to confirm that there was no one in the hall and gave a short nod to the camera in the corner. When the red light blinked out, Jazz spoke quickly and quietly: "Got a message I've been dreading from our eyes in the sky."

Optimus could almost feel his fuel pump stop. "What were the contents?" he asked, optics narrowing in concern.

"Short and to the point, like anything we get from TC: _Soundwave suspects._" A faint grin crossed Jazz's lips as he added, "Followed almost immediately by a similar message from Warp with the addition of _get us the frag outta here._"

Optimus _almost_ asked if Starscream had had anything to chime in with, but remembered that had that been the case he would have received a personal comm peppered with deactivation threats on the Decepticon communications officer; as he'd noted many times in the past, the seeker had one pit of a temper, and his offspring had inherited it in spades. Even if Starscream was naturally soft-spoken – the first time he'd heard the mech ever say a word was shortly before they'd left on their assignment, and the vocalizer damage hadn't sounded _quite_ so bad when Starscream was speaking quietly – the seeker was quick to anger and would lash out viciously.

"Do we know the trine's status?" he asked instead, waiting for either a positive or negative from his TIC.

"Couple of dents from the twins, but nothing to prevent them from winging it if they gotta."

The Prime gave a sharp nod. "Contact them on the coded channel and tell them to head for home the very next time they're scheduled for a patrol. I'll inform Prowl that the twins are to be kept in the brig for a while longer; the last thing we want is four torqued-off seekers getting into a scuffle with Sideswipe or Sunstreaker."

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**End Notes:** Mwahahahaha cliffhanger!

Well, not really. More to come as soon as I can make the words flow forth.


	3. Rivalry Part 2

**Notes:** This part's kind of on the short side. It's mostly just to get everyone in one spot. Full reactions will be in the next part as well as some details on what had been going on with the trine prior to their arrival.

Also, I'm starting to vaguely hint that someone has their eye on CJ. Feel free to submit your guesses, because this just bit me outta of nowhere as to _who_.

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The _Ark_ was literally buzzing with gossip, only this time it wasn't any of the usual chatter.

Somehow, word had gotten out that there was an infiltration unit – one that had been in position since early in the war – due to return to the fold shortly, and speculation had begun to build from there. Smokescreen even had a betting pool going on just which supposed-Decepticons were going to come knocking at the door, as well as if it would be Prowl or Red Alert to crash first as a result. Jazz had refused to participate in the pool (although Ratchet, oddly enough, had thrown in a few credits saying that the SIC and security director would simultaneously crash), and was refusing to give any hints as to the identities of the spies.

Another topic of conversation was Cliffjumper. More than a few mechs had noticed how the minibot seemed to brighten at the news, which sparked rumours of some form of bond existing between him and one of the spies. The rumour of the minibot having a bondmate amongst the infiltration team members was the most popular, although if anyone had been paying attention they would have noted that one mech tended to scowl and ignore the rest of the conversation when it was brought up in his presence. This was something that would be noticed much later and acted upon, but at the moment was still a secret guarded closely by that particular 'bot.

In spite of the fact that no one really had any idea what was going on, most of the soldiers were ready, if not entirely willing, to put aside their feelings they had regarding whatever acts the spies had deemed necessary to maintain their cover.

Right up until someone noticed that the incoming seekers that Teletraan I had picked up on the scanners weren't flying in any known attack formation and suddenly realized just _who_ the infiltration team consisted of.

"Um, sir?" Bluestreak spoke up from the console, blinking his optics a few times to make sure he wasn't imagining things before turning to face the Prime. "We have incoming on the long-range scanners, and it's seekers, not only that it's Starscream and Skywarp and Thundercracker, but they aren't flying any pattern I recognize, so are we waiting for them or are they just doing some weird-aft reconnaissance mission for Megatron?"

All other conversations in the room ceased instantly, a majority of the mechs in the room likewise looking to Optimus for an answer; the only ones not waiting to find out if Blue's question was valid were Jazz, who was trying not to laugh, Prowl, who seemed to be on the verge of shorting out, and Red Alert, who looked as if he was finally putting the final piece of a puzzle into place and seeing the big picture at last.

Optimus cleared his vocalizer when he realized he had everyone's undivided attention (with the few exceptions previously noted). "Ah... actually, Jazz, didn't you mention earlier that they were in contact with an ETA?"

There was a brief crackling sound as Prowl collapsed into a heap, logic circuits shorting out as he tried and failed to process that three of the biggest thorns in the Autobots' sides had been on their allies this whole time. This didn't go unnoticed, as Optimus winced and sent a silent comm to Ratchet informing him that the SIC was down.

Jazz snickered and nodded. "Yeah, TC said they were about half a breem out; all I could get from Screamer was a detailed account of how many tiny pieces he wanted to rip a certain 'con into before they left but was dragged out before he had the chance."

"Somehow I'm not surprised," the Prime said, rolling his optics skyward for a brief moment. He was about to ask if there had been any other communiqués from the team when an open comm call came in from Ironhide.

_"What the pit is goin' on around here?"_ the weapons specialist fairly demanded. _"Cliffjumper just went tearing on through here like he was Inferno on the way to a fire!"_

Jazz burst out laughing as Prowl, who was just coming back online, groaned and dropped his head against the floor again; the other mechs on the control room looked over at their leader for an explanation. Optimus glared at Jazz for being no help at all before clearing his vocalizer.

"There's a perfectly good explanation for that," he began; on the scanners, one of the dots representing the seeker trine blinked out then reappeared practically on top of the base.

Meanwhile, Bumblebee had been chatting with Mirage and Blurr at the entrance to the _Ark_ when the three of them were nearly knocked off their pedes by Cliffjumper. The red mech barely spared an astrosecond to call back an abrupt apology as he darted past them. Following at a slightly more sedate pace was Ironhide, who was apparently listening in on another conversation over the comm while keeping one optic on the minibot who was now scanning the skies intently.

"What was _that_ all about?" Bumblebee asked, looking to Ironhide for an explanation. The two blue mechs were staring at Cliffjumper like he was a few circuits short of a motherboard.

"Findin' out now," the older mech responded, frowning slightly. "Seems Blue picked up our infiltrators on the scanners 'cause Jazz decided not to inform anyone they'd commed him. From what I'm gatherin' so far it sounds like they commed Jumper as well for some reason."

"There-are-those-rumours-going-around," Blurr noted. "If-any-of-them-have-basis-in-fact-it-makes-sense-that-they'd-contact-him."

Mirage's optics narrowed as there was an abrupt burst of displaced air accompanied by the far-too-familiar sound of a teleport. "Oh, the twins are going to _love_ this," he remarked dryly.

The other three mechs with him looked up in time to see the minibot pounce on the newly-arrived Skywarp, the seeker catching him and holding him tightly. One of the observers felt his jaw clench as a surge of jealousy swept over him. He'd been quiet about things for a long time, and now it was looking as if he'd been right to keep his affections hidden; it was folly to pine after a taken mech, after all.

"Say _what_ now?!" Ironhide cried abruptly, drawing the optics of not only those standing next to him but Skywarp's and Cliffjumper's as well. "There ain't no fraggin' way! Jazz must be tellin' ya stories, Prime!"

"What-what?" Blurr asked, frowning slightly. Behind him, the other two members of the trine touched down and moved to join their wingmate.

The weapons specialist looked up again and glanced at the four mechs now clustered together, the group quite obviously getting reacquainted with one another. "Well, Unmaker slag me. If Ratch's claiming it too and I'm seein' what I'm seein', then I s'pose it's gotta be the truth." Ironhide grinned wryly and nodded towards the reunion taking place close by. "Accordin' to Jazz, Ratch, and Prime, those three seekers are long-time 'bots and Jumper's their kid."

Three heads snapped around to see the command trine clicking and fussing mildly over the supposed minibot, who seemed to be loving all the attention. The one mech who had been jealous earlier felt an odd sense of relief mingled with nervousness. Just his luck that the mech he was interested in was not only unattached, but had three fully-functional seekers as guardians.

He knew he would have to keep it quiet; seekers were notoriously protective when it came to their young.


End file.
